New Zealand is the New Australia February 22, 2008

Hello!!!

Its Friday afternoon here and we are in Taupo – in the middle of the North island right next to a huge lake. Sorry for not posting, but we are seriously trying to do this on the cheap and internet time = money buddies. I have so much to tell I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with trying to get it all out  – first of all, NZ is freakin’ awesome! It is so beautiful everywhere we go – a sharp contrast from Australia. Here is a quick rundown of some things we have done:

1- Drove from Auckland up to the North Shore and stayed in a little town called Paihia – we hired a sailboat and a skipper for a day and he took us all over the Bay of Islands area, we went snorkling and went on a quick hike to see some WWII gun emplacements – what a great day. Sure, he told us we could do the hike barefoot no problem – Dan stepped on a bee, but he’s tough so no biggie. We got served lunch on the boat and were excited to learn that it was a seafood lunch – it was a tuna fish sandwich – but it was delicious and I guess tuna does come from the sea. I mean, we’ve been eating tuna sandwiches every day but at least this one had cheese, mayo and lettuce on it, right?

2- Drove back down south past Auckland to Hamilton and stayed in the parking lot of the campground because the office closed at 9:00. We thought since we pitched a tent in the parking lot and didn’t actually rent a space we wouldn’t feel too bad about getting up at 6:00 am and doing the skedaddle. Yes, I know – dishonesty never gets you anywhere and don’t worry – the campground dude was up and waiting for us when we got up at 6:00 – he then said to us “So, I’ll just take $40 off you guys and we’ll be square”  A part of me wanted to say “Forty bucks to sleep in your parking lot? Is this a joke?? I’ll give you $20″ but in real life I’m a lot more talk and less action so Dan just forked over the cash and we busted on outta there.

3- Went to the Waitamo Glow Worm Caves and scored a sweet 10% discount with our “student” cards – went on a tour of the cave and got into a boat to view the glow worms – they were pretty alright but it definitely wasn’t worth more than the $20 we spent on it.

4- Went to an authentic Maori village and saw geysers, hot pools and how they cook all their food in steam boxes and a natural hot springs. Also saw the authentic “Haku” dance. The tour was great – so was our tourguide – but it definitely was a bit on the hokey side – I mean, this was not the polished, tat-faced elaborate Haku dances done by the more expensive (ahem…. government run) tours – one of the girls in the show just stood up there and mouthed the words – I probably could’ve done a better authentic Maori dance and we all know what a fabo dancer I am.

Thats all I can think of for right now – I have only had three or four freak outs – mainly due to the lack of food I’m thinking – or the pressure to see as much, do as much, experience as much as possible every freakin’ minute of every day. Maybe I’m pms-ing – who knows. Speaking of lack of food – for the past few nights Dan and I have been eating penne noodles with a can of baked beans over it – don’t judge it’s $2 and it gets the job done.

Love

Vacancy February 15, 2008

What up Valentine’s Day lovers!! I hope all of you had a wonderous day yesterday – full of love and cheesball antics, romance and hallmark cards, roses and chocolate. Last night was sadly my last shift (for now) at P9. We handed out free roses to all the women in the restaurant – lovely, eh? I had a table of business men out for dinner who I assumed were all from out of town – I mean, why else schedule a business dinner on V- Day, right? Yep - thought they weren’t from here until at the end of the dinner one guy asked me if he could have one of the roses to take home to his wife. What a cheap-o! Other highlights from the evening included a semi-regular girl that comes in we like to call the “Anorexic Drunk Girl” – honestly her shrinking frame gets smaller every time she comes in – last night Jean Paul served her – she drank three french martinis and two glasses of wine before dinner and when he asked her to order she said ” Does the sashimi have rice served with it?” and when JP replied that it didn’t she said “So, like, does that mean it doesn’t have any carbs?” Sick. She is so thin and disgusting – her skin is like a lizard – all tanned and dried out. woof. Before she left she hocked a lugie into her glass and then fell up the stairs on her way out. Man, she is one classy broad. Last but not least we did have a couple in their mid 50’s VERY much in love with the day – they were all giggly and romantic all night – she was dressed up in a ball gown complete with tiara and he was in a suit. They opened gifts at the table and I’m not quite sure what she received, but she got him a framed picture of herself in a car. One of those black and white photos with just one color showing – the car was an antique car – yellow and she was in the drivers seat leaned up against the open window looking out with her face resting on her folded arms. (I’m hoping this makes sense – it better if I ever want to get this writing train on the tracks and pulled out of the station) Now isn’t that just darling! Sorry – I’m jaded. All I got from Dan was two roses that he pilfered from work. Love you Dan!! Just kidding – I can’t stand V-day – unless its a day spent with your mother or your friends.

After work we all went out to One Degree to celebrate me and how wonderful I am and how sad everyone is that I am leaving. I got a wee bit drunk and Dan and I walked home – I clumsily attempted to ride his bike and he laughed at me the whole way home. I vaguely remember befriending another couple who was walking home – we traded Borat lines for a good three blocks – good times, let me tell you.

Today is a very sad day – we are packing up and closing down the lobby for good. Motel JDJ is no longer. Yeah, yeah, I know we thought we had it all worked out and we would sublease and come back to our little oasis with the windows painted shut, but things happen kids, plans change in this crazy mixed up world. The big news I’ve been alluding to all week – or at least for the last two postings is this: (wait for it……)

After New Zealand we are parting ways. Its been a real struggle to make the decision (at least for me) to stay in Australia after our visa is up and reapply – or just tuck the proverbial tail between my legs and limp home like a beaten dog, only five months into my adventure. Well, I dallied around on my decision making so long that Jess finally said “Screw it! I’m going to Thailand!” The thing of it is, we made the decision to come here and live – and once we realized that was what we were doing – we all hated it. Jess is the first one of us to man up and say “I’m happiest when I’m traveling” and so be it. For now the plan is to go to NZ (tomorrow!!!!) and live it up for a month – we have TONS of plans, recommendations and journeys mapped out and are all incredibly excited to just rock it out for the month. Then we come back to Brisbane and Dan and I will stay here for a while – we’ll go back to work – save up some money and then who knows – we may go up north, or we may head south – we’ll see how fall is and what the winter predictions are going to be like. Jess on the other hand will be in Brisbane for a few days and then she heads off to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam – we hope to meet up with her in the Whitsundays or Cairns sometime in April.

So that, friends is the big news. I don’t know if it lived up to the hype or not – but I hope it did. I wish Jess would start a blog regarding her Asia travels, but I think she’ll be roughing it more than she’s letting on. As for Dan and me – I’ll be keeping all of you up to date on good ol’ Minimal Responsibility as often as I can in NZ – and then who knows what will happen when we get back to AUS. If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing friends.

Love to all – and wish us luck during our travels tomorrow.

Nope, Not Dead February 13, 2008

Just really putting off writing…. Sorry everyone – We leave for New Zealand on Saturday morning and have all been busy preparing – I do have some exciting news to be sharing – but I think it will have to wait until Friday – No, none of us are pregnant, getting married, have won the lottery or anything like that. Sorry to disappoint regarding the lottery issue. Not too much has been going on here – there have been many monsoons and severe storm warnings on the coast – so going to the beach at all has been out which is kind of a bummer – I really need to work on my tan before we go to NZ.

Sunday at work I served Anthony Warlow – one of Australia’s most celebrated opera singers – Phantom of the Opera is playing at the QPAC in town and he is in the lead role of the Phantom. He was very nice – he ate a steak and drank some coffee. See how exciting my life is!!! Opera singers! Just kidding. Other than that little “highlight” of the week – I really can’t think of much else going on. We are all refusing to grocery shop for anything other than the bare minimum (which for Dan means bread, eggs and cheese) so Jess has thoughtfully been picking up sandwiches from the Coffee Club for all of us. The other night I came home from work and she was in the kitchen putting our rations away – ahhh thank you Coffee Club – I do love free food – and am not ungrateful whatsoever, but do you think you could leave off the cranberry sauce on the turkey sandwich and maybe sub a little mustard? If not – no problem, it was just a thought.

The little lobby is getting cleaned just about every day – today on my task list is vacuuming – something I don’t normally mind but in this case the only working suction on said vacuum is the hose so you have to sit on your hands and knees pushing the dang hose all over the floor. You all know how ungraceful and face sweaty I can get – I can’t wait to be on all fours like a dog just draggin’ that hose around for an hour. We are all almost packed up – well, Jess and I are – Dan…..not so much. One good thing about packing is going through all my clothes and being able to say “I haven’t worn you in the four months I’ve been here – I’m not going to miss you” and putting it in the donation pile. My suitcase is considerably lighter. It has also helped that many of my clothes are now too big for me. HAHA!!! Ahh, that feels good.

Ok – Last but not least, congrats to Big Daddy J – Bob Seger was the correct answer!! To tell the truth I’m kind of over the quiz….. for today anyway – maybe next time.

LOVE!

Long Time, No Write February 7, 2008

Uhhh….. can you tell it’s not January anymore? Although I do have to say I only missed nine days the whole month – I was quite proud of myself.

Congrats to Karah on the music quiz – this one might have been a little misleading because I said they were inducted into the hall of fame when they were actually only nominated. Whoops. I’m sure life has been really hard for all the rest of you – not knowing who won. So- Karah, email me your new address so I can send you a postcard – Abby quit whining I’ll send you one anyway – and Kate – your is on the way. (If I make it to the post office that is…..)

Life here has been pretty much the same as it ever was – that coupled without the personal pressure to post every day has left me without words. Jess and I went to Pier Nine to watch the Super Bowl Monday morning – it was played live – it started at 9:00 am – I think it was the first time I’ve actually watched the game – not just gotten together with friends for tons and tons of food and gossip. For once there wasn’t anyone yelling at me  “Shut up, the game is on” – so, I guess thanks Australia for that. I don’t think that will be a trend continuing over to next year unfortunately. As you all know – the game was pretty good, but one thing we missed – the commercials. Instead of playing them – the station just flipped to some American guy sitting on a couch with two Australians who were punters in the NFL and they talked about the game. It was quite obvious that none of them really knew what was going on and it was super boring to watch. Of course, lists of Super Bowl commercials are everywhere – so I actually got to watch some of them online – which now typing that, makes me seem kind of sad.

Regardless, we had a great day. Besides that – not too much going on. We leave for New Zealand in nine days… Eeeik!! I don’t know how much I’ll be able to post over there – but I do know that when we get back some big changes will be happening – some of which are still in the works right now. More on that later. Hope everyone is doing well at home -

Today’s quiz:

This man’s band can kill supernatural creatures – He is a Detroit boy who actually was inducted into the hall of fame by another famous Detroit rocker. One of his most iconic songs was named “Songs of the Century” in 2001.

LOve!